Twishted

You can’t always get what you want.

It was supposed to be your greatest achievement, the fulfillment of a life spent seeking out the world’s treasures and secrets. You finally found it: a secluded altar, a hidden spirit–known as “the Giver”–with the power to grant your greatest wish.

Nothing ever mentioned that it had a price.

Enraged, it granted your wish–but twisted it, giving you a dangerous copy of what you desired. Now you must find a way to pay the spirit’s price…or be reminded every day that you should be more careful what you wish for.

Twishted is a story of a group of modern explorers who have made their greatest discovery, only to find themselves cursed with a twisted form of what they most desired.

Though the setting is modern, the mood of this is a pulp adventure story–bold two-fisted adventuring in the Indiana Jones tradition, with characters who are tougher, smarter, or more capable than any normal person could be expected to be…but not superhuman. Think of action heroes or the sort of geniuses who make exactly the unlikely connections needed to make it through the story–but not superheroes or fantasy wizards.

Please feel free to design your own cards, but please note that none of the characters should start with actual occult/magical powers (knowledge and lore is fine–just not spellcasting or other supernatural abilities). You may acquire such abilities over the course of the adventure (or, possibly, twisted occult/supernatural abilities as a result of your wish).

Character Creation

Aside from your character’s background–what led him to start adventuring, what sort of discoveries or adventures he might have already had on his own or with previous groups, etc.–I need to know your character’s wish.

Rules on the Wish:–Submit your wish (non-twisted) as your submission note, rather than on your character description.–If you’d like, you can also provide a suggestion or two for how the wish might be deliberately misinterpreted to work to your disadvantage.–Wishes will all be deliberately misinterpreted to work to your disadvantage, whether you suggest a way or not. Even if they provide some kind of useful ability, none of them have net positive effects. If I can’t think of a way to twist it, I may ask you for input. :-)–The other player characters, being affected by the spirit as well, are immune to effects from your wish–either the wish itself, or abilities/curses caused by it. If your wish (or the twisted form of it) would, say, cause everything you touch to turn to gold, it can’t affect them.–Keep it clean, please.

I am looking for four to five characters for this game, and if I get more apps than that, I will pick the ones that seem like they will mesh together best and have the most interesting interactions. Please note that if I get enough characters I like before the end of the application period I may close it and start the game early.

Group Background

Once I have picked my cast, the first scene will be setting up a bit of group background–this group has gone on at least a couple previous adventures together, so we need to establish some history. I’ll be asking three questions. Don’t answer them as part of your application, but here they are if you want to be thinking about them:

What is one thing about you, not connected to your skills or role in the group, that the others have learned about you during previous adventures?

On a previous adventure, you got in a dangerous situation and one of the other group members saved you–who was it, and how did they save you?

On a previous adventure, when all seemed lost, you used your abilities to save the day. What was going on, and how did you do it?

Important Note:The story opens pre-wish, so your application and selected cards should concern your character before the wish, with the possible exception of your subplot–feel free to have that involve the effects of the wish if you want. The game will move to the wish very quickly, with at most one or two challenges before it.

Retired Characters:Another quick note: by default, if people retire from one of my games, I create an Asset card representing their character, and continue to use them and allow players to use them as part of the group. If this is a problem, please tell me in your app comments. It does not necessarily mean I will avoid picking you (though I will admit it will likely lower the odds of you being picked a bit), but it will let me know which characters I will need to have contingency plans for if players disappear.